Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Problems with my giveaway. Please read.
I tried shipping out the prizes today and was just totally shut down. Both the winners are international. USPS said they won't ship nail polish internationally. UPS said it would cost over $20 to ship the one to Canada and over $100 to ship the one to the UK. Fed Ex and DHL said no nail polish. I'm really frustrated and upset right now and I still have a bad cold so it's that much more annoying.
I don't know what to do in this situation. The best solution I can come up with is to redraw winners and only accept ones from the US. Then I could send them the polishes and send the original winners the prizes I was collecting for my next giveaway (so far just some Hi Fi samples and some lip glosses... about the same cost as the polish would be, so it would work out). Then I just wouldn't do the giveaway I was planning, I can't afford to keep buying and sending all this stuff.
Is this solution reasonable? I really don't know what else to do here.
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Royal Mail say they won't ship nail polish but they never turned down any of my orders, even the ones that were shipping abroad with "Nail varnish" mentioned on the customs label !
ReplyDeleteI have just had loads of varnishes shipped from the US that I bought on Ebay. They were marked as "dapen dishes" on the customs form though (but then anyone with the xray stuff would have seen they were varnishes)
It's really sad that they're doing that. I hope you find a solution x
Shipping nail polish is hell. I wound up not participating in the Zoya exchange because no one would ship it for me, not even my local UPS.
ReplyDelete$100 for one bottle of polish is crazy.
:( I'm sorry you're having an issue. Personally I hate the post office for this very reason.. I've had my fair share of 'shipping dramz' with them. I think you should talk to the people that won, I'm sure they'll accept your choice. It sounds reasonable to me though.
Good luck with all of this!
Ok it's really weird. I've had no problems shipping from the UPS store by my house and I tell them I'm shipping nail polish. I almost think that different locations/people will tell you yes or no. If you order from any nail polish place online, they ship it to you, so I think some post offices/mailers just don't know what the official policy is.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I'm sorry you're having issues.
:( Awh, that stinks. The giveaway is supposed to be fun, so I'm sure the winners will understand your plight. Get better!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had an easy answer for you, but I don't. That sucks the shipping is so expensive. My recommendation would be to check with the winners to see if they would mind accepting a different prize or none at all due to the high shipping costs.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you decide, remember it is your contest and you should do what you feel is most fair in the light of the unforseen circumstances.
Hate to tell you to lie but if it was perfume they'd probably let you ship it & it contains alcohol just like nail polish.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that's just.. ridiculous, wtf? I'm sure the winners will be understanding to your dilemma and accept an alternative prize... don't be hard no yourself, I mean who the hell would know you'd have to pay such an insane shipping fee for a single nail polish? -_- Anyhoo, take it easy and get well soon. ^^
ReplyDeleteHoly crapola! Now I'm trying to remember what the ebay people ever wrote on my packages. Damn post offices always gotta ruin ze fun!
ReplyDeleteIt's okay if you can't send. $20 is friggin rediculous!!
To my knowledge, USPS.com states that flamables and dangerous liquids (which means not just nail polish, but perfume, too) are a no-go for international, and have limited options for shipping domestic. Also, to my knowledge, the companies that ship nail polish via USPS pay a good deal of money to get permits to ship it, and that's how they seem to have no problems.
ReplyDeleteEek how horrid! I guess it depends if you're willing to lie. Do they actually ask you what you're sending or is it just or the customs form. If it's just on the customs form you could put 'cosmetics' and then if anything happened you could just say you didn't know there was anything wrong with sending polishes. If not i'm sure the winners will understand and be happy with an alternative :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the winners will understand! Anyone who reads your blog regularly knows that you're a super sweet girl! They won't be upset and might even like the alternative prize even more! =D Good luck and feel better! I'll be shipping off your prize tomorrow! Good ole USPS!
ReplyDeleteWell, I decided at the last minute to add a nailpolish to my Fyrinnae giveaway stuff, and didn't know about regulations, so didn't mention it, didn't even think about it going by air - and SilhouetteScreams said it got there fine, no blowing up from pressure or anything.
ReplyDeleteI will say, I learned some stuff about mailing polish before I sent in my Zoya swap stuff. All I had to do for that was mark it "ORM-D" and "Surface Mail Only." (Here's the instructions I followed: http://www.chemwise.org/9-Simple-Steps-to-Mail-Nail-Polish.pdf) But I don't know if that would work for international mail. And even if it did - surface international is probably expensive (no doubt part of the quotes you got).